<論説>中世民衆の葬制と死穢 : 特に死体遺棄について

Abstract

中世の日本には、死者を土葬や火葬に付すことなく、山野や河原に放置して犬や烏の餌食とすることが広く行われていた。この葬法の事例を検討すると、その対象は次の二つになる。(一)血縁のない者。葬送する者がなく遺棄される。(二)都市・農村の下層。山野の特定の地に風葬した。(一)は中世以前、家族以外は葬送に携わってはならない禁忌が存在したことによるもので、この禁忌が「死穢」の観念の発生基盤となっていたと考えられる。中世後期以後、これら「無縁仏」も葬送の対象とされるようになる。(二)は古代から中世前期まで普通にみられたが、中世後期以降次第に消滅し、一部は両墓制を生じ、また多くの地名にその痕跡がみられる。本稿では(一)を「死体遺棄」、(二)を「風葬」として扱ったが、現象的には共通点が多く、中世人の葬送観念や死穢の観念を分析する上からも、また民俗学的に葬法の変遷を再構成する立場からも重要な資料となるものである。

In medieval Japan there was a prevailing custom of abandoning corpses in an open field and to animals instead of burying or cremating them. The examination of several cases makes us realize that the way of abandonment can be categorized into two groups according to the types of the funerary objects: 1) those who had no blood relations were abandoned without any funeral rituals; 2) those who had belonged to a lower stratum of a rural or urban society were often layed on a special out-of-the-way spot for aerial sepulchrae. Category 1) was caused by the convention which restricted participants of a funeral to those with family ties. This convention may also be thought of as one origin of the idea of "impurity of death" (shi-e 死穢). Since the later medieval period, however, those who died without relatives (muen-botoke 無縁仏) came to be thought of as proper candidates for funeral ceremonies. Category 2), which had been an ordinary way of disposing of corpses from ancient times to the former medieval period, disappeared gradually after the later medieval period. Partly it changed into the double tomb custom and its vestige can be traced in many place names. Though the author classified category 1) as "abandonment of corpses" and 2) as "aerial sepulchrae", he also admits that these two categories had many common points phenomenally. The examination of materials such as those discussed in this article would make a significant contribution to the analysis of medieval concepts concerning funerals or the impurity of death, and the folkloric reorganization of the changes in funeral customs of the common people.